Scottish Water staff hold third strike over pay

Scottish Water workers are going on strike again after rejecting the company's latest pay offer.

Members of three unions - the GMB, Unite and Unison - will walk out for seven days until Sunday, following strikes in March and April.

They have again been offered a 3.4% pay increase, which unions say falls short of what other public sector workers in Scotland have received.

Scottish Water said the offer was "comfortably" above inflation and there was no need for the strike to go ahead.

It initially offered workers a basic pay rise of 3.4% or £1,050 for those on the lowest grades.

But after a 24-hour strike in March and two strike days in April, the offer was changed to 7% over two years.

A further walk-out was due to be held earlier in May, though this was paused when pay talks resumed to allow workers to consider the latest offer.

However, 51% of Unison workers voted to reject the pay offer and 49% voted to accept. The turnout was 86%.

GMB said 60% of its members voted against the offer, and 40% chose to accept, on a turnout of 78%.

Unite's statistics were not available.

Unison's Scottish Water branch secretary Patricia McArthur said that staff were "extremely frustrated" and accused management of "game-playing".

She said: "The company seems more interested in spending public money on anti-union tactics than in finding a solution to this pay dispute.

"Its managers proposed a possible pay offer, but then retracting it, only to come up with something much worse."

The upcoming strikes are expected to disrupt emergency repairs, testing and maintenance, though Scottish Water said "robust" plans were in place to maintain essential services.

A joint union demonstration will take place outside Scottish Water's Shieldhall offices in Glasgow on Wednesday.

Scottish Water's chief operating officer Peter Farrer said: "This week's industrial action is unnecessary. It will mean union members losing valuable wages and add extra costs to the business which are ultimately paid for by customers.

"It is now time for the joint trade union leadership to return to the table with a sensible solution that ends this dispute."